Omega Super Charger SC-3, Poor quality flow switch, am looking for alternative..

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RichardUK

Member
May 11, 2015
76
1
Hertfordshire
After little more than 3 hours of service the coolant flow switch on my Omega SC3 broke in open circuit mode, which wrongly indicates that the coolant was not circulating. This in turn causes the compressor to turn off, preventing re-charging of guns and cylinders. 

Ross of Guilbert Distributions here in the UK very helpfully helped diagnose the issue and immediately dispatched a replacement part. I then fitted the replacement part only to find the the seal that joins the two halves of the flow switch leaked when the coolant pump was turned on. 

This part is of such poor quality that even the manufacturer won't put their name on it. So I'm looking for a higher quality equivalent to use in the compressor. The flow switch needs to provide a short when it detects flow. The outside diameter of the bits that's pushed in to the hoses being 9.4mm (or 0.37").

Anyone know of a suitable part?
 
I have been somewhat depessingly unable to locate an equivalent part. However Ross advised me that the problems with the part were known to Omega and that they were working on an update to the part.

Today that part arrived. First impressions are that the part looks much the same as the old one, still with no manufacturer willing to put its name on it (although I understand that it is in fact made by Omega) and no arrow on it to indicate direction of flow (as the switch also acts as a check valve - guess l'll be able to work it out then).

All in all am looking forward to fitting it. Hopefully it won't leak and hopefully it will prove to be much more reliable than the part it replaces. Either way will update this thread when I feel confident one way or the other about the part.

ANON
 
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Sorry to hear that you are having so many issues with the Omega super charger, I've read a lot of post on line with guys whom had there unit almost a year now and no issues at all, that's why I am really considering picking one up. They said a known issue huh? because i'm unable to find any complaints on defective parts, a couple of complaints that is was slow.
 
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However Ross advised me that the problems with the part were known to Omega and that they were working on an update to the part.
Click to expand...
I guess this is the part that bothers me the most. I understand allowing a company/dealer to fix the issue. But if they knew all along there was a problem with this particular part, then either the manufacturer or the dealer is negligent in allowing the compressor to be sold in the first place.
 
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Depends when they found out about it. Sometimes these things just aren't discovered until their out there in the field.

There is no doubt it though, the part is a critical part of the compressor system, in that if for whatever reason the coolant system fails (say a leak or pump failure), then the flow switch is the part that detects this and turns the compressor off, thus sparing the compressor from overheating and ceasing up. With such a feature, whilst the Omega compressor is not the fastest out there, at least you don't have to sit next to it and babysit it while it does its work. 

One good bit of news that came out of this episode, is that if the part fails, it shuts the system down - so at least you get to find out about it before any serious damage is done. 


 
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Below is a picture of the replacement part I've been sent. 



Physicals are:
The length of the body is 36.5mm, body diameter is 18.2mm, overall length is 70.5mm, connection nipples lengths are (70.5-36.5)/2 = 17mm, nipple outside diameters are 9.25mm. Connection cable length is 1m, connector pin spacing 2.5mm. Connector connects to 2x 1mm square pins spaced at said 2.5mm. Connector width is 5.7mm and sits in the middle of other connectors. 

Electricals:
No flow gives open circuit. Flow gives short circuit. Judging by the cable diameter would say it could take circa 500mA of current. 
 
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Hi Azuaro. The part in the picture is indeed a check valve flow switch. The pump is a separate part that sits a few inches below the flow switch. Given that the pump's inlet is 90° to it's outlet I would guess that the pump is the centrifugal kind. 

The two previous switches each failed in a different way. I suspect that with the first it was the electronics that let it down. With the second it was a simply leak when that occurred when the pump was running. We will see how the third goes.

FYI, as far as I can tell when there is no flow, the flow switch consists of a conducting ball that sits on the check valve's inlet, then when the pump is turned on it pushes the conducting ball onto a couple of contacts and so provides a short that is used to enable the compressor to run. But this is just speculation. 

For or now let's hope its third time lucky. But I for my part cannot see any difference between this third switch an the previous two.
 
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Hi Azuaro, the pump is one part that does have some kind of markings on it. When I eventually get around to installing the new switch (probably when my cylinder runs out of air), I'll take the details down and post them here. 

However in the mean time, it's quite possible that the Omega part is a reed operated switch. The description I gave before being more about how I thought the switch operated. Bear in mind that I haven't taken one of theses bad boys apart yet, but now that you mention it, the reed mechanism sounds to me a more likely proposition for how the Omega part may be operating.

Either way, it certainly won't stop me shooting, as I do have other options for getting air into my rifles.
 
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